DCTV Weekly News Roundup

Earth- Two Laurel Lance will appear as a series regular on Arrow Season 6. Katie Cassidy, who plays Laurel, started out in the Arrowverse on Arrow way back in season one until she was killed off at the hands of Neil McDonough’s Damien Darhk in the final episodes of Season 4.

Since then she has been limited to sprinkling of appearances across Arrow, Flash and Legends of Tomorrow first as a dream/flashback version of Earth-One Laurel then as her evil Earth Two counterpart who was first introduced on The Flash.

Along with the former Black Canary the new Black Canary will be appearing a bit more in Season 6 of Arrow as actress Juliana Harkavy has been upgraded to a season regular. Ms. Harkavy first appeared in Season 5 of Arrow and soon became a firm favourite amongst fans of the show (including myself). Another Season 5 newcomer,Rick Gonzelaz’ Rene/Wild Hogg has also been bumped up to a season regular spot.

Supergirl

Katie McGrath’s Lena Luthor is now a season regular on Supergirl. Lena, the sister of Superman’s arch nemesis Lex, has so far appeared to be trying to separate herself from her brother’s despicable ways, despite her mother’s attempts to lure her to the dark side.

It does, however, seem that there is a lot more to Lena than meets the eye. I’m sure we will find out of her motivations in the coming season.

Legends of Tomorrow

Some new blood is being brought into the Legends of Tomorrow in the form of a new series regular as Tala Ashe (“As the World Turns” / “Smash”) signs on to play a computer nerd from the year 2030 named Zari Adrianna Tomaz.

The character Adrianna Tomaz has appeared in the DC Comic history as the alter ego to Isis and former wife of Black Adam.

It is unknown at present if the story that is to be told will go anywhere close to those told in the comic books, although with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson having been signed on (for what seems like forever) to portray Black Adam somewhere within the DCEU it’s highly unlikely he will appear in the TV world. But then, I suppose we once said that about Superman so never say never.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marc Guggenheim the creator of Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow has shared some information with regards to the next big crossover event.

“If we end up doing what we’re talking about doing, it’s going to be pretty cool, the crossover is always the most challenging thing we do, but it’s also the most fun. Every year we feel the pressure (to top ourselves). I feel like each crossover has topped the previous one. Topping last year’s, that’s a high bar, if for no other reason that what do you do that’s bigger than aliens? We’ve got some very, very exciting ideas. Very early on in the process of doing last year’s crossover, Greg (Berlanti) said there’s probably no way to get bigger than aliens, so the best way to make the next crossover especially epic is if you can’t increase the bombast, increase the emotional stakes and the emotional payoffs, so that’s a very oblique comment on where our heads are at for this season.”

I do love a good crossover. I only hope this time it is a true four-way crossover (or five if Black Lightning is involved), unlike last year where the crossover literally started in the final seconds of a Supergirl episode.

In Other News

A little bit of information pertaining to the newest show in the CWverse, Black Lightning. The pilot episode is scheduled to be shown at San Diego Comic Con on Wednesday July 19th so be sure to keep your ear to the ground as I am positive some lovely spoiler-free reviews will pop up all over the interweb.

Finally, Smalllville alumna Erica Durance (who played Lois Lane on the hit show from 2004 to 2011) is joining Supergirl as Alura, Kara’s late mother taking over from Laura Benanti who could not return due to other engagements.